The House of Commons wraps up its fifth straight sitting week before it adjourns for the Christmas break and while the majority governing Conservatives call the fall session “very productive,” the opposition characterized it as a government “abusing their majority.”Since September, three bills were passed and by the end of this calendar year, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) said he expects at least three more to be given royal assent: bills C-13, the Second Budget Implementation Bill; C-18, the Ending Wheat Board Monopoly Bill; and C-20, the Increasing Seats in the House of Commons Bill. Bills C-13 and C-18 are currently in the Senate, and Bill C-20 is at report stage in the House of Commons. Mr. Van Loan told The Hill Times last week in an interview that he expects it to pass in the House by this Tuesday so that the Senate can deal with it before it rises for the winter break.
“When you go through those priority bills, you’ll see actually that none of them have become law yet. We’re still working on them and we’re making very, very good progress and we’re on track to have the important priorities in place by the end of this calendar year,” Mr. Van Loan said. “I think it’s [been] very, very productive, but I think what that underlines is that there’s a gap between the rhetoric of the opposition on how quickly we’re moving and the reality of how slow they actually make the process and it does take a long time to get these bills into law even when we’re doing everything we can to make them critical priorities.”
Liberal House Leader Marc Garneau (Westmount-Ville Marie, Que.) criticized the government last week for using time allocation on several bills to push through its legislation. He said that’s what the last session was about.
“They’re going to argue that they have their mandate from the people through the election, and they’re going to argue that they promised to rush certain things through and they’re just keeping their promise. I think Canadians expect them, given their majority, to allow the opposition which represents a lot of Canadians, to have the opportunity, they want to hear what the opposition has to say. That’s part of the functioning of Canadians to hear what alternatives are proposed. You’re going to see some legislation go through to third reading, without a single comma being changed,” he told The Hill Times. “I think they’re abusing their majority and Canadians will ultimately decide whether that’s acceptable or not.”
In response, Mr. Van Loan said the fact that not many of the bills have become law yet is testament to the slow nature of the legislative process. Even with the time allocation, which is made worse by the opposition’s motions to kill certain bills, he said, they are not yet law. Moreover, he said, the government has not moved time allocation on some important bills, such as Copyright, Senate Reform, and Citizens Arrest, which are all still on the Order Paper.
“They all sit there with motions from the other parties to again prevent them from going past second reading and debate just keeps going and going with no progress,” he said. “All this is evidence is that the only way we can get things done in the face of an opposition that in every major bill brings in a motion to prevent, basically to shut down debate and get past second reading is to set a timetable, schedule through time allocation.”
Since it was introduced in September, Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Bill, has been debated six times. Since it was introduced in June, Bill C-7, the Senate Reform Bill, has been up for debate five times and since it was introduced in November, Bill C-26, the Citizen’s Arrest and Self-Defence Bill, has been up for debate once.
“Even Citizens Arrest, where they claim to be supportive and we thought there was a possibility to have it as it was in the previous Parliament and send it off to committee quickly on second reading, they’re taking even longer with it this time around. So they claim to support it but still find ways to delay it,” he said.
But Mr. Garneau said the government, with its majority, can pass any bill it wants and does not need to invoke time allocation “in an unprecedented manner.” Mr. Garneau said the Conservatives need “to learn to relax” because they have a majority now.
“I don’t think they’ve successfully transitioned from being a minority government to being a majority government and it reflects badly on them. Canadians know they have a majority, and they know they can do whatever they want and expect them to also be democratic in terms of allowing sufficient debate to occur,” he said.
Mr. Van Loan said that he would characterize the fall session as one that “has demonstrated is a government that has a clear set of priorities, has a clear plan to get them in place, addressing that in a productive, competent, working, hard-working fashion—focused on priorities and delivering results.”
The House breaks for six weeks and is scheduled to return on Jan. 30, 2012. Mr. Van Loan said there will be “more of the same” when MPs return from their Christmas break. The priority bills that will go through Parliament include Bill C-10, the Omnibus Crime Bill, which is currently in the Senate, Mr. Van Loan said. The government will also focus on free trade agreements with Jordan and Panama (bills C-23 and 24); the Copyright Bill; Bill C-14, the Improving Trade Within Canada Bill, and bills C-27, the Financial Accountability and Transparency of First Nations Bill and C-21, the Accountability with Respect to Political Loans Bill. Mr. Van Loan noted that in keeping with the government’s priority of dealing with the economy and creating jobs, Bill C-25, the Pooled Registered Pension Plans Bill, will also be a priority.
“Those are some examples of bills that are already here that we’d like to see dealt with,” he said. “There’s already an agenda based on the pace at which the opposition is willing to work to keep us busy already for a long, long, long time. If the current pace of their cooperation is the pace I can see us going for a year or more.”
Mr. Van Loan said that the government has no plans to prorogue Parliament in the winter and would not speculate on which new bills could possibly be introduced.
“Our focus will remain first and foremost on the economy and job creation so that’s what you will see next year,” he said. “The cornerstone of that will of course be the new budget for next year. That consultation process is already underway. The minister has been out doing his consultations as has the Finance Committee and that I think is for Canadians the most important part, that focus on jobs and economic growth.”
Mr. Garneau said he looks forward to seeing the budget and how the government will handle the recession and its promise to not only cut the public service but also to try to balance the government’s coffers. “I think by far the biggest thing will be the budget question. Jobs and the economy are the top issue. We’re waiting to see where the $4-billion will be cut whether it’s an intelligent approach, and whether it’s a smart one, given the very fragile state of the economy,” he said. “What we’re going to see now in the next couple of years is a difficult unemployment picture. We’ve had two months in a row of job losses. I don’t think the job market is in terrific shape at the moment, particularly in respect to permanent jobs and I think that the government has got to do everything they can to minimize losses of jobs and in fact put measures forward that will help to create jobs. That will be our focus. I think that will be the biggest challenge for this government to really show they know how to manage the highest priority for Canadians.”
Origin
Source: Hill Times
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